As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems often employ data encryption when storing data in order to protect the data from being accessed by unauthorized persons. However, traditional approaches to encryption and storage of encrypted data have many disadvantages. For example, many traditional approaches employing hardware-based encryption generally allow only a particular encryption algorithm to be applied and are tied to a specific component of hardware. In addition, many traditional approaches do not allow for true full-volume encryption of data, as system-specific data is often left unencrypted in traditional approaches to allow for system startup and boot. Furthermore, secure storage of objects (keys and authentication objects) that protect data must often be stored in a secure storage location that requires specific security protocols and authentication methods.